Brass Shining Made Easy!

Joshua M. Smith · Mar 2, 2017

Hello,

I was playing with different methods of shining brass.

Wet tumbling, I used 2 cups water and added one tablespoon lime juice.

This is the result:

I hope this helps someone!

Regards,

Josh

j_h_smith · Mar 2, 2017

Yes, that has been talked about. Lemon or lime.

Thanks!

Melnic · Mar 3, 2017

lemon or lime juice in the little squeeze bottles, many use lemon shine powder.
touch of dish soap.

I have said it a number of times but I tried stainless steel pins, but stopped as I felt it was UN-necessary and added more labor unless your range brass was grass pickup that was nasty.

DarrellA · Mar 4, 2017

Melnic said:
I have said it a number of times but I tried stainless steel pins, but stopped as I felt it was UN-necessary and added more labor unless your range brass was grass pickup that was nasty.

Good to know. I'll give that a try.

Thanks

Seabee · Mar 5, 2017

I use a squirt of Dawn and a pinch of lemishine in an ultrasonic cleaner for 8 minutes and they are like new inside and out. Primer pockets are also clean. No need for a tumbler anymore. I dry them in an old food dehydrator which take about 20 minutes. It also does a great job on my pistols. They come out like new.

Ken

StickShaker · Mar 5, 2017

Melnic said:
lemon or lime juice in the little squeeze bottles, many use lemon shine powder.
touch of dish soap.

I have said it a number of times but I tried stainless steel pins, but stopped as I felt it was UN-necessary and added more labor unless your range brass was grass pickup that was nasty.

I finally had enough brass collected to re-tumble after initially tumbling with pins and I tried it with no pins this time. Just as shiny on the outside, inside dirty which I don't care about, but the primer pockets were quite dirty. I know the soot inside of the case will keep burning itself off but I'm not sure if the primer pockets will eventually fill up and need a manual cleaning?

I have the blue clam shell Franklin pin separator/rinser setup which works very well and still want to use it for rinsing even without pins because it also removes most of the water from inside of the cases.. The top of the "bucket unit" has a very fine screen to catch the pins but lets the dirty water flow out. I can remove almost all of the pins by flowing clean water through the drum while shaking it before putting the cases in the rinser. That's actually the only step that adds time when using pins so it may not be worth going pinless if I have to manually clean the primer pockets.

Ironnewt · Mar 5, 2017

OP are you depriming the brass before tumbling?

teratos · Mar 5, 2017

Wet tumbling I use a little Dawn and a shake of Lemishine.

shovel1966 · Mar 9, 2017

Ironnewt said:
OP are you depriming the brass before tumbling?

teratos said:
Wet tumbling I use a little Dawn and a shake of Lemishine.

I also like the Dawn and Lemishine method of wet tumbling only after depriming.

teratos · Mar 9, 2017

shovel1966 said:
I also like the Dawn and Lemishine method of wet tumbling only after depriming.

I deprime first as well. I just use a universal deprimer.

StickShaker · Mar 9, 2017

Dawn and a little bit of pure citric acid. I found it at a hardware store for canning tomatoes. I bought a quart of the Franklin cleaner just to try it out and it works good with dawn also.

J Beard · Mar 10, 2017

Found a video where a guy used grits in a rock tumbler to clean cases, came out surprisingly clean

toolness1 · Mar 21, 2017

I use dawn and LemiShine and I love how good the Franklin tumbler works, but man it is a HUGE pain.

I like the results, and the fact that I'm exposing myself and my house to much less potentially harmful dust. Sometimes I still just use my dry tumbler though. I scratched up my bathtub dealing with the stainless pins/bucket/tub/magnet/etc. My sink is too shallow to be useful.

Oh well, it's a rental

Mdeng · Mar 21, 2017

My old Franklin Arsenal media tumbler just crooked after 10 years of use. Time to buy a new one. What brand/type of tumbler is being used to wet tumble brass?

shocka04 · Mar 21, 2017

I use a tumbler from HF. Haven't had any issues with it so far and comes out clean(I use lemishine, dawn, and stainless pins). Don't have experience with any others though.

ken792 · Mar 21, 2017

Mdeng said:
My old Franklin Arsenal media tumbler just crooked after 10 years of use. Time to buy a new one. What brand/type of tumbler is being used to wet tumble brass?

Get the Frankford Arsenal wet tumbler. They were on sale at Cabelas and Amazon for $130 on Black Friday. The price fluctuates, so you can snag a good deal if you can wait.

Mdeng · Mar 21, 2017

This one?https://www.amazon.com/Platinum-Series-Rotary-Tumbler-7L/dp/B00HTN4R6O

ken792 · Mar 21, 2017

Mdeng said:
This one?https://www.amazon.com/Platinum-Series-Rotary-Tumbler-7L/dp/B00HTN4R6O

Yep

https://www.mdshooters.com/showthread.php?t=202612

trailtoy · Mar 21, 2017

Good choice. I picked one up before xmas last year when it was on sale. Have not used the pins yet, but with just water and a little dish soap they came out pretty nice.

Streetgang · Mar 23, 2017

I built my own wet tumbler from PVC and an electric motor. I can clean 7lbs of brass with 7lbs of stainless pins, 1TBS of dawn and a 9mm cartridge full of lemishine.

Brass Shining Made Easy!

The #1 community for Gun Owners of the Northeast

Member Benefits:

Hoosier

Ultimate Member

Ultimate Member

Jacksonian Independent

Old Timer

Active Member

Ultimate Member

My hair is amazing

Member

My hair is amazing

Active Member

Deplorable Member

Ultimate Member

Ultimate Member

Active Member

Ultimate Member

Ultimate Member

Ultimate Member

GOA, MSI, NRA

OP4

Users who are viewing this thread

Log in

Forum statistics